Rio Tinto hits $1.3b driverless Pilbara trains target

It has taken Rio Tinto 10 years and $US940 million to automate its Pilbara rail network.

The West Australian

VideoIt has taken Rio Tinto 10 years and $US940 million to automate its Pilbara rail network.

Rio Tinto is claiming to have established the world’s biggest robot after meeting a revised, self-imposed deadline to automate its Pilbara rail network by the end of 2018.

The mining giant will announce today its $1.3 billion Autohaul driverless train program is fully operational 10 years after it was first proposed.

The news means 90 per cent of Rio’s iron ore rail network in the Pilbara will be controlled remotely from its operations centre at Perth Airport.

The company’s shorter Robe River line, servicing the Mesa A and J mines, will continue to operate with drivers at the controls because journeys can be completed without the need for shift changes.

Rio has about 200 locomotives on more than 1700km of track in the Pilbara, transporting ore from 16 mines to four port terminals.

The boss of rail, port and core services at Rio’s iron ore division, Ivan Vella, said early results from Autohaul had shown significant potential to improve productivity, increase flexibility and reduce logistical bottlenecks.

It is expected to boost average train speeds 6 per cent by removing acceleration and braking variations caused by human drivers, but more importantly it will cut hours of downtime in train stoppages when one worker’s shift ends and another’s begins.

It also means Rio won’t have to transport its train drivers 1.5 million kilometres a year back and forth across the Pilbara by road for shift changes.

The company says there has been no forced redundancies as a result of Autohaul, and none expected next year.

Train drivers are still needed for yard work, fuel transport and in construction, maintenance and diagnostic roles.

Autohaul is expected to boost Rio’s Pilbara iron ore capacity from 340 million to 360 million tonnes and allow the mining giant to more easily slide its output up and down in response to market conditions.

The full rollout of Autohaul comes after Rio secured regulatory approval for the program in May and completed its first driverless rail journey with cargo in July. The program is part of a broader ambition for the company’s iron ore division to deliver $US500 million in additional cashflow by 2021.

The news follows Rio’s announcement this month that it had pushed the button on its $US2.6 billion Koodaideri iron ore replacement project in the Pilbara.

The safety of privately owned Pilbara rail networks was in focus last month when a fully laden BHP iron ore train careered 92km without a driver before being deliberately derailed south of Port Hedland.